1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pressure transducer apparatus and, more particularly, to a pressure transducer apparatus having a stop cock and suitable for use in an invasive fluid pressure monitoring system, e.g., an invasive blood pressure monitoring system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A pressure transducer is conventionally used in order to measure a dynamic blood pressure. Since a pressure transducer has a high precision and is capable of continuous measurement and measurement of low pressures, a dynamic blood pressure can be graphically measured. In particular, the pressure transducer is inevitable for monitoring a patient in serious condition. The pressure transducer detects the dynamic blood pressure by converting it into an electrical signal.
When dynamic pressures in a plurality of blood vessel systems (e.g., artery and vein) are sequentially measured by a single pressure transducer, blood in each blood vessel system to be measured must reach a detection section of the pressure transducer and other blood vessel systems must not communicate with each other. For this purpose, conventionally, catheter lines communicating with the respective blood vessel systems are connected through two to five three-port stop cocks and paths of the three-port stop cocks are appropriately switched to attain the above requirements.
However, use of such a three-port stop cock results in a complex switching operation. If the stop cocks are erroneously operated, different blood vessel systems communicate with each other, and a serious accident that may threaten the life of a patient (for example, artery blood flows into venous blood) may be caused.